27 Lower Body Exercises

Sorry in advanced as I rushed to post this topic today, but I hope you'll find these lower body exercises useful to use in your workouts.

Developing leg strength and power are important in many sports, from kung fu kicks and jumps to nordic walking. However, even more important is endurance for our daily activities. As long as we are able to stand, we all have to carry ourselves on our legs (which doesn't mean only our leg muscles are helping to keep us up, but they play a major role).

27 Lower Body Exercises

1. Bodyweight Squats
2. Half Bodyweight Squats
3. Hindu Squats
4. Half Hindu Squats
5. Bent Squats
6. BootStrapper
7. Bounding Squats
8. Jump Squats
9. Jump & Tuck Squat
10. Lateral Squats
11. Squat Thrusts
12. Rear Leg Elevated Squat
13. Scorpian Thrusts
14. The Pistol (One Legged Squat)
15. Elevated One Legged Squats
16. Lunges
17. Reverse Lunge
18. Jumping Lunges
19. Knee Jumps (complements of FitDaily)
20. Knee Drops
21. Prison Shower Defence
22. Calf Raises
23. Sprinting
24. Rebounding
25. Depth Jumps
26. Hopping
27. Box Jumping

Isometrics

I purposefully haven't included isometrics, but will dedicate a post or a few to them soon. All the lower body exercises are cyclic and so can be done repetitiously.

References

5 Types of Squats to Master
Bodyweight & Hindu Squats
Bodyweight Squats: The Key To Massive Leg Size And Strength

As usual, feel free to leave a comment or contact me through urbantri@mail.com.

Thanks,

Gemma aka AnonymousJ

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The Empty Stance

Finally, may I present the last stance in the series, at least for now. Just to recap, there are 5 basic stances in wushu (aka kung fu).

• Horse Stance
• Bow Stance
• Resting Stance
• Drop Stance (Flat Stance)
• Empty Stance (Cat Stance)

The Most Difficult of the 5 Basic Wushu Stances

The empty stance, otherwise known as the cat stance can be found throughout many Chinese martial art styles, and therefore comes in several styles. Because the bending leg is carrying all the weight upon it, and the thigh is parallel to the ground, the calf and thigh muscles work extremely hard to keep you static. Tye “Nuke” Botting of kungfu.cc's TFK Martial Arts Forum commented that 'it should be the hardest [stance] to hold for any length of time, or indeed even to get to at first.' This is especially true if you do the stance the way it's executed by wushu competitors as I will describe below.

Method to Achieving the Empty Stance

• Start with feet shoulder width apart.
• Turn your right foot out at about 45º.
• Bend the right leg so that the right thigh is horizontal/parallel to the ground (or at least as close as you can get it to be parallel).
• Place the front your left foot forward lightly on the ground so that it is in line with your right heel. The left foot should not be flat on the floor.
• If you do the stance correctly, you'll be able to lift you the right leg off the floor without falling over.

Additional Notes About the Empty Stance and Stance Training in General

There are two schools of thought when it comes to training, and it's not just with stances. You can first try to build endurance, then add speed or strength. Alternatively, you can build strength and then work on endurance. I favour the second school as does Tye “Nuke” Botting who made a valuable note:

'That is, do the stance as exactly correct as possible, then try to do it longer and longer....At first, like with the cat stance, this may only be for even a fraction of a second....Doing it right and then longer is much better than doing it longer and then working to be more right.'

References

Correcting Problems with the Empty Stance
Practice and Application of Wushu Stances
Choy lay fut and Stance Training - Flexibility & Applications
The Empty Stance Deep Form

As usual, feel free to leave a comment or contact me through urbantri@mail.com.

Thanks,

Gemma aka AnonymousJ

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The Drop Stance

Here's another isometric stance for strengthening our legs! Plus, this really stretches the muscles of the inner thighs.

The Drop Stance: Method

• Start with your feet 2 shoulder widths apart.
• The feet can be slightly outwards.
• Squat a little, as you would do for the horse stance.
• Now drop, not suddenly mind, but drop your torso to one side by bending your knee of one leg and keep the other leg straight.
• Keep both feet flat on the floor and lean forward towards the straight leg.
• The more flexibility you have, the more the stance looks flat (hence the name).

Simples!

Check out a good page on Major Wushu Stances for more info.


As usual, leave a comment or contact me with any questions through urbantri@mail.com. Thanks.

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Basic Kung Fu Stances

Update to the Martial Arts Page
I've just finished an update of  the urbantricks' martial arts page.

Short videos to the 5 basic kung fu stances have been added:

1. Resting Stance
2. Horse Stance
3. Bow Stance
4. Flat Stance aka Drop Stance
5. Empty Stance

As usual, leave a comment or contact me through urbantri@mail.com with any questions and I'll contact you as soon as I can.

http://urbantricks.blogspot.com/p/martial-arts.html

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The Bow Stance

The Bow Stance (gong bu), is useful for attack and defence. It's also great for developing muscle strength and endurance as 70% of your weight falls on your front leg. Your quadriceps definitely will feel it if you've never done it before.

In Combat

Personally, I do it just for strengthening my legs, but you can practice punching with it as it was designed, or use it for other attacks.

Sifu Wong Kiew Kit provides a series of videos and lessons on how to oppose a boxer's stance with the bow stance at http://www.shaolin.org/video-clips-3/shaolin/boxing-02/barcelona11.html. He looks so in control of what's going on over the boxer too.

Sifu again uses several stances including the horse stance to counter a boxer's jab in http://www.shaolin.org/video-clips-3/shaolin/boxing-01/barcelona02.html.

Method to doing the Bow Stance

• Start with feet together.
• Step out on one foot to create a distance between the front and back foot. The longer the gap between feet, the lower the bow stance will be, and it's up to you how low or high you want your stance.
• Turn the back foot outwards at about 45 degrees.
• Make sure your back leg isn't locked. It should be slightly bent otherwise I find it may cause discomfort later on.
• Now bend your right leg so that the knee is aligned over the heel of the front foot, not beyond it.
• Make sure your torso is facing forwards but your neither leaning over or backwards.
• It may feel like you need to twist the torso a little bit to face forward. 

Low Vs High Bow Stances

Artistically speaking, the lower stances tend to look more aesthetically pleasing, but they are also great for developing strength in the legs. That is not to say, that Tai Chi type bow stances which are high aren't also good for developing leg muscles. The tai chi bow stance is a lot gentler on the muscles but very effective nonetheless.

As usual, leave a comment or contact me through urbantri@mail.com with any questions.

Thanks for reading.

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Other Websites to Help With Stance Training

Stances in Tai Chi- comprehensive list of stances
Physical Principles of Ch'uan-shu - as to not injure yourself doing the bow stance